14 Maoists gunned down in separate encounters in Chhattisgarh

Security forces on Saturday killed 14 Maoists, including senior cadres Mangtu (DVCM) and Hunga Madkam, in two separate encounters in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region.

According to officials, 12 Maoists, including Mangtu, were killed during a gunfight with security personnel in Sukma district. In a separate incident, the bodies of two Maoist cadres, one of them identified as Hunga Madkam, were recovered from forested areas near Gaganpalli village in the Basaguda region of Bijapur district.

Officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs said security forces also recovered weapons from the encounter site in Bijapur, including an SLR rifle and a 12-bore gun.

A senior police officer said the encounter in Sukma took place in the southern part of the district when security personnel were conducting an anti-Naxalite operation.

In Bijapur, another exchange of fire broke out in a forested area in the southern region of the district around 5 am, when a team of the District Reserve Guard, a specialised unit of the state police, was carrying out a similar operation, an official said.

Security personnel continued combing operations in both districts, and intermittent firing was reported at the time of filing this report. Officials said further details were awaited. Last year, security forces killed 285 Naxalites in separate encounters across Chhattisgarh as part of anti-insurgency operations.